The story is a sort of updated take on the legend of Faust but goes its own way with the idea. Set in rural Vermont, a solitary, drunken man named Taft is visited by Mr Dangerfield – a thinly disguised Mephistopheles – who offers him all he wants on earth in exchange for his soul in Hell in a few months time. So far, so familiar, but Taft uses his new powers not for self-enrichment and indulgence, but to relieve the sufferings of others in various ways. Freeman then plays with the paradox of a pact with evil being used for good very effectively. He also writes with subtle wit and allusion to the mythology of Hell, so that Dangerfield’s assistants (well, more like enforcers) are called BZ and Ash, for example, which I liked very much. There is also real humanity here, as in this passage after the death of a popular teenager:
“Soon would have to begin the search for comfort, for strength, a search perfectly vain, reduced at best to reliance on ancient solace, the bleak assurance that the good die young and the young die good, spared as they are the disappointments, disabilities, and dissolutions that inevitably afflict those of us who live on. True, perhaps, but not a truth that has ever brought much relief to survivors in pain…”
I absolutely loved Castle Freeman’s Lucian Wing trilogy. This is perhaps not quite as brilliant, but it’s a fine, thoughtful and readable novel which I can recommend warmly.
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